Embrace of the Nosferatu
by hockeygoalie1992
Summary: When you spend most of your life living with a six hundred year old vampire, you tend to pick up a few things: magic, obviously, a level of cruelty, and the tendency to be very manipulative. When this is unleashed upon an unsuspecting student body of eleven to seventeen year olds, it's only a matter of time before chaos ensues.
1. Run, Little Rabbit

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own the **_**Harry Potter**_** series or **_**Negima!**_**, nor do I own their characters.**

**A couple of months ago, I tore down my old crossover, Heir of the Fire Master, as I didn't think I did a good job on it. I said that I'd revisit the HP/Negima idea when I had a better idea of what I wanted to do with the fic. **

**Chapter 1: Run, Little Rabbit**

The sound of footsteps pounding on the wooden floor echoed through the halls as Harry sprinted through the castle, panting heavily as his lungs screamed for air. He stole a quick glance back over his shoulder, checking to see if he had finally managed to escape his blond tormentor.

The hall was empty. That was odd, last time he checked, she was hot on his heels, grinning wickedly as she enjoyed her game, hunting her favorite prey, her favorite little toy.

Harry let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding, relieved that he at least had a momentary reprieve to catch his breath and figure out where he was going to hide from the hungry vampiress. Normally, he didn't mind living with her, but this… this was the one thing he hated. Being her prey wasn't fun, not in the least bit. He shuddered at the thought of her fangs plunging into his neck, the sensation of her sucking on his skin and her tongue lapping up his lifeblood. Even worse, her venom made it feel so… good.

Something like… like _that_ shouldn't feel good! That unnatural wave of euphoria that took him as the venom ran through his veins, that involuntary inclination to lean into her touch, it was all so frightening. The fact that her venom could make him enjoy having his blood sucked…

He shook his head; he really didn't want to think about it! There were far more important matters at hand. Not getting caught seemed like a good place to start. Easier said than done. She was a vampiress, the ultimate predator, this was her element, hunting him down, reveling in his fear as she slowly but surely closed in on her prey…

To her, this was nothing but a game of tag, and Harry most certainly didn't want to be "it". Not that he had much of a choice.

"Haaaaaaaaaaarryyyyyyyyyy," A young girl's voice called, echoing and reverberating around him, sounding as though it was coming from every direction. Harry felt his breath hitch in his throat as he frantically searched for her, backing away from the hallway he'd just run out of. "Come out, come out, wherever you are! Come out and play, Harry!"

He sprinted away from the hall, skidding to a halt as he tried to take a sharp turn around the corner at the end. There was only one place in this entire castle that he would be safe from her; he'd been setting it up in secret for a while. She'd given no indication that she new about it; if she found out, he very much doubted that she'd have let him get away with it.

After all, what kind of vampire would let someone set up a safe room by hanging cloves of garlic, leek onions and crosses in their own house?

Actually, now that Harry thought about it, this was right up her alley. She would find it amusing that her little toy had made himself a panic room; it merely served to make the game more interesting for her. Now, instead of being able to chase him around for hours on end until he got exhausted or she backed him into a corner, she would have to catch him before he made it to his room.

Instead of tag, he'd turned it into a game of hide and seek; and Harry knew from experience how much she _loved_ hide and seek. If a game of tag was a hunting game for her, hide and seek let her do that and stalk him and tease him until she finally decided to stop playing around.

Come to think of it, this was right about time for her to do so. By now, she would normally sneak behind him and tackle him from behind or be waiting right around the corner.

Harry ran headfirst into something very solid and sturdy, causing him to stagger backwards, flailing his arms comically as he tried to maintain his balance, and failing do so as he fell hard on his backside. He shook his head to stop the ringing in his ears, before looking up to see what he'd run into. He was greeted by a most unwelcome sight.

Standing less than a meter away from him, her hands placed on her hips and a wicked smirk gracing her cute, ten-year-old face was the object of his fear. At this moment, the sight of her platinum blond hair and icy blue eyes, and those gothic style dresses she always wore was like his nightmares had manifested into a physical form. Standing above him was the very person who served as his caretaker, his tormentor, his tutor, and best friend…

Evangeline McDowell, the Maga Nosferatu.

The grinning vampiress lifted him to his feet with one hand, before pulling him towards her and wrapping her arms around his torso in a tight, teasing hug. She leaned in close, mere inches from his ear. "Found you," she sing-songed mockingly.

Harry tried frantically to squirm out of her grasp, flailing his arms and legs in an attempt to force her to loosen her grip, but to no avail. Eva was far too strong. True, she was showing considerable restraint in order to avoid crushing his spine, but Eva still had a pretty strong hold on him.

Eva smiled as her little toy – err, her friend and latest disciple – continued his frantic efforts to escape her clutches. She found his resistance so amusing, it was absolutely adorable that he would still try to run from her and squirm in her arms despite all evidence from years past that once she caught him it was all over.

Suddenly, Harry planted his feet on the ground and gave a quick jerk backwards, pulling her off balance for just a split second. That brief lapse was all he needed; in a move Eva had taught him, he pivoted on his back foot and used her momentum to throw her over his hip, sending her tumbling to the floor. Harry didn't stop to marvel at his achievement, he quickly fled down the hall in the direction of his safe room.

Now, one might think that Eva would be angry that one of her own aikido techniques had been used against her, but she wasn't. Far from angry, she was actually amused at the whole thing. To her, the fact that he managed to escape her grasp just made the game a bit more fun… for her.

The tiny vampiress dusted herself off and stood, calmly strolling down the hallway after her wayward toy. She knew exactly where he was going; there wasn't a single thing that went on in her castle without her knowledge.

Oh, she knew all about his little safe room, he hadn't been nearly as discrete about its creation as he thought. He thought that it would be advantageous for him to hide there whenever she decided that she wanted to play or have a little drink, but in fact, it wasn't.

Eva shook her head in amusement; now, she knew that he would flee to that room every time and try to wait her out, hoping that she would either lose interest or decide to find someone else to drink from. He couldn't be any more wrong; Eva could be very patient when she wanted something. She was selfish by nature, a fact that she had no problem admitting, and would throw all of her energy into getting what she wanted, but she could easily wait him out. His plan did have one or two flaws in its very nature.

The first was that he was counting on the fact that she would grow bored waiting for him to come out. That wouldn't happen. Even after knowing her for a few years, he still hadn't figured out that he was her favorite toy, teasing him was her favorite pastime.

The second flaw was much simpler: he wouldn't be able to stay in the room if he got hungry. And Eva knew for a fact that he hadn't eaten a thing since lunch, which was nearly six hours ago.

Silly little boy.

Of course, she couldn't let Harry suspect that she knew, that would ruin the surprise. She had to play the irritated huntress. Eva channeled a bit of magic into her vocal chords and muttered a spell under her breath to create that echoing effect that unsettled him so. "You're gonna pay for that one, laddie!" She snapped, letting a bit of her native Scottish burr bleed through.

The frequency of his footsteps on the hardwood floor increased, drawing a chuckle from the Dark mage; she so loved winding him up!

Anyway, he should be arriving at his so-called haven right about now, so it would be a good time for her to make her appearance and be "frustrated" by his use of her weakness and her inability to get to her favorite food source.

Eva broke into a light jog; she should at least make it look like she put some effort into the chase after he escaped. She turned the corner just in time to see him dive into his safe haven and slam the door shut behind him, a clove of garlic and crucifix were actually hanging on it as well. Eva chuckled a bit, he really put some thought into this one, making sure that she couldn't just smash through the door and fight him hand to hand; albeit, without the added advantage of her superior speed and strength due to her vampiric blood.

"Not bad," she muttered softly, before getting into character and rushing forward, skidding to a halt in front of the door and pounding angrily on it. "Open this door, laddie!" She shouted. "You're only making it worse for yourself!"

From within his safe haven, her raven-haired prey replied. "Not a chance! What does it even matter if I make it worse? It ends with you sinking your fangs into my neck!"

Okay, fair enough, she'd give him that one. He wasn't going to get out of giving her a nice, satisfying drink if he came out of his room like a good little boy, but doing so would certainly make it easier on him.

Which meant less fun for her, but Eva had learned how to make Harry do exactly what she wanted long ago. So, really, his decision to stay in that room would just make it all the more satisfying for her; if anything, she'd have been more annoyed if he'd just come out and given up.

Yet another reason that Eva loved hunting Harry: he always tried so hard, holding onto the thought that he could find a way to beat her this time. His determination – or perhaps it was fear of being her favorite snack – made it all worth it in the end.

"Fine then!" She snapped, storming off in a huff. "Stay in there all night for all I care! Just remember, the moment you put just one foot out that door, you're mine laddie!"

Eva didn't bother to stick around and listen to his response; she already had her own plan and getting into a lengthy argument with him would just take all the fun out of it.

She knew her temper was horrible, but she'd been working on it the last few years. Where as she would beat her last apprentice into the ground if he annoyed her, she tried to force herself to walk away from these less important squabbles when Harry was concerned. As skittish as he was when he was younger, the last thing she needed was for him to walk around on eggshells because he was afraid of being pummeled because of a minor disagreement.

The blond vampiress had to smile at that thought; she'd managed to find the one boy with more nervous issues than the other brat, a feat in and of itself.

Anyways, that didn't matter. She had given Harry one of her typical threats following one of their squabbles and he'd fallen for it splendidly; Eva really did have to admit, she was quite the actress if she did say so herself.

And she did, in fact, say so herself.

Now, she just needed to draw the little boy from his hiding place; fortunately for Eva, the room he'd chosen to set up his safe haven in was just down the hallway from the kitchen, where Chachamaru would, no doubt, soon be preparing dinner. And Eva knew just how much Harry loved her gynoid servant's cooking.

Such a silly little boy.

Eva walked into her kitchen, and sure enough, was greeted by the sight of her longtime servant putting the finishing touches on dinner. She sniffed the air and grinned, coq au vin, a French dish that involved marinating and cooking chicken in wine. Chachamaru had cooked this once before and Harry had practically inhaled it.

On a side note, she'd have to thank Hakase for uploading those foreign recipes into Chachamaru's database; both for her own enjoyment and her current plan. Maybe she'd get Mahora's resident technology genius a grant for her experiments. Eva personally didn't know nearly as much about computers as Hakase – quite a feat when you consider that the twenty-four-year-old had far less time to acquire the knowledge – and, now that she had escaped the infamous School Hell curse placed on her by Nagi Springfield, Eva had access to the considerable wealth she'd attained over the course of her life.

"How long until dinner's finished?" Eva asked casually.

"Approximately fifteen minutes, master," Chachamaru replied in her emotionless voice, turning to face her diminutive vampire mistress. "Was your drink with young Harry satisfying?"

Evangeline smirked in amusement at the gynoid's wording of the question and shook her head. "I haven't my fill of him yet," she answered with a chuckle. "The little brat locked himself that safe room that we found him setting up a couple of days ago."

Chachamaru turned fully. "Shall I escort him to you, master?"

"No need for that," Eva replied, waving her off. "His adorable attempts to escape my grasp amuse me so. Though, I do have a much more entertaining way of luring my wayward toy from his hiding spot."

"Which is?"

"Just finish dinner, sit back, and watch. He'll be out once the hunger pains start to kick in."

After serving her master for as long as she had, Chachamaru knew that statement in combination with the fanged grin didn't bode well for young Harry. Despite the fact that she was machine, Chachamaru had come to grow a bit attached to him, not quite to the level she had with Eva's previous disciple – the closest she'd ever come to feeling or expressing the human emotion of love – but when Eva was unavailable it fell on her to look after Harry.

That being said, she was torn on this matter; on one hand, she was programmed to follow her master's orders without question, on the other, she did have to consider Harry's best interests.

While the boy might not particularly enjoy being a walking buffet for her vampiress master, Chachamaru knew full well that Evangeline would stop drinking from him long before his life was in any danger.

One would never hear Eva herself admit it, but she had grown fond of the boy, valuing his company more than a mere object for her amusement. If Chachamaru were human, she might feel a slight bit of pity for the poor soul who dared try to endanger Harry's life.

Of course, even if she could feel pity, it wouldn't stop her from joining her master in taking vengeance and raining hellfire down upon them.

"Chachamaru," Her master called, breaking her momentary lapse in concentration.

The gynoid set a reminder to make an appointment to see Hakase about that, losing focus wasn't a good sign, even if she was programmed to simulate human actions to an extent. "Yes, master?" She replied, turning back to the stove.

"Do make sure the smell fills the castle," Eva said, her grin widening so much that it nearly split her face. "We wouldn't want Harry to forget that he needs to eat soon, now would we?"

The realization hit Chachamaru like a ton of bricks. She knew something was off with the way her master was calmly asking about dinner instead of chasing around a certain raven-haired boy, but now it seemed all to clear. Eva wasn't going to try to find a way into the room; she would simply wait for Harry to come out once his hunger was too much to bear.

Knowing Harry, it wouldn't be long until he succumbed. Of course, it wasn't much help that she'd chosen to cook one of his favorite dishes tonight. Chachamaru refrained from voicing her displeasure to her master, lest she find herself a victim of that infernal wind up key Eva used whenever she was too disobedient.

Still, it was a bit unsettling to her; Eva _knew_ what tomorrow was, there was no way she'd forgotten. While the tiny vampiress might be six hundred years old, give or take a few decades, her memory was quite sound. She knew exactly why Chachamaru had chosen to prepare one of Harry's favorite meals and, more importantly, who would be joining them tomorrow in the early afternoon.

Judging by the predatory grin on her master's face, Harry had made a rather grievous error: he'd played his role of prey far too well. If there was one thing Eva loved more than wreaking havoc and tormenting her disciples, it was a good hunt. Since her last disciple only offered weak protests as she bit down on his arm, the novelty of having a new one who would give her a halfway decent chase gave her such a thrill.

Now, Eva wasn't just chasing him around her castle for amusement; she wanted to see her hunt through and earn herself a couple mouthfuls of Harry's blood.

Chachamaru sighed and shook her head in exasperation. For as smart as he was, he really could get himself into a lot of trouble with very little effort. At this point, all she could hope was that her master remembered their plans for tomorrow and didn't take as much blood as she typically did. Or that she would at least let the boy sleep in.

* * *

Harry winced as his stomach growled and the pains of his hunger forced him to hunch over; this wasn't going quite as he envisioned it. Granted, when he was coming up with this brilliant plan – or so he thought – he was more focused on trying to keep the noise down so to avoid Eva discovering his intentions.

That was no excuse, though. He really should've planned for something like this. Eva was by no means a novice when it came to hunting prey; she waited until the scales were tipped in her favor. The fact that she would take advantage of catching him in between mealtimes should be no surprise whatsoever; and yet, here he was, lying on the carpeted floor of one of the many rooms of Eva's castle, clutching his stomach and cursing his own stupidity.

This was just plain embarrassing. There was absolutely no way he'd last the entire night, and he just _knew_ that Eva would be waiting for him.

When it came to threats, he'd learned that she always kept her promises; no matter how outlandish they might sound. A certain incident with an elderly man and a two by four came to mind, drawing a shudder from the young boy. Suddenly, being Eva's chew toy didn't seem as bad; at least he'd be able to move his limbs afterwards.

His current situation only worsened when the smell of Chachamaru's cooking began to fill the room. This was one of the very rare occasions in which he cursed Eva's gynoid servant; why the bloody hell did her cooking have to be so damned good?

Oh, and it was that French style chicken she'd made for them a month ago. Great. Just fantastic.

"Just put me on a silver platter and _serve_ me to her, why don't you?" he muttered through clenched teeth. Come to think of it, he wouldn't put it past Chachamaru. After all, it was no secret that her loyalties lied with Eva first, allies second.

The mental image of Chachamaru pulling the lid off of a platter to reveal himself bound and gagged with an apple would've been a lot more comical if he wasn't so damned hungry right now. This was torture. This was just absolute, freaking torture.

This had Eva written all over it.

"Oh, I hate you both _so_ freaking much right now," he groaned to no one in particular. Sod hiding, he needed food. He'd sneak a quick peak outside, if Eva was waiting for him, he could always just dive back in and try to wait a bit longer.

Yeah, right, he'd react fast enough to beat her vampiric speed. And then he'd beat her in a one on one battle with her going at full power, his parents would suddenly come back to life, the entire world would be sunshine and rainbows and Eva would willingly put on those _ridiculous_ cat ears that Albiero always tried to force her to wear and introduce herself as "Kitty".

If she was anywhere near the door when he turned that knob, his name might as well be "dinner". All he could hope for was that she'd be somewhat gentle and get it over with.

Surely someone had told her not to play with her food at some point in her six hundred plus years… then again, that person probably didn't get past the word "Don't" before Eva tore him apart.

That aside, he was hungry and, unfortunately, food was in the kitchen, and even more unfortunately, that was all the way down the hall. Yes, he was well aware that the kitchen was maybe ten meters from the room, but that was ten meters too far when Eva was concerned. But it was a risk he'd have to take.

He was too hungry and Chachamaru was an amazing cook. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

The fact that Eva was probably responsible for the whole thing and would no doubt be waiting for him didn't even register anymore; satisfying his hunger was priority number one.

In fact, who was he even hiding from again? Who cares, time to eat.

Harry didn't even bother trying his original plan of sneaking a peak out into the hallway; he just opened the door and stepped out, following the smell of food to the kitchen. Along the way, he didn't encounter anything out of the ordinary, no sign that Eva had set a trap for him, none of those annoying flytrap spells or his limbs suddenly moving involuntarily because of her dark puppet strings.

"Wow, maybe she's letting me off the hook for once," Harry mused aloud as he rounded the corner and stepped through the doorway into the kitchen. He immediately homed in on his target: food.

Eva be damned, there was food on the table.

To the untrained eye, it would appear that the young boy had moved from his spot at the door to his seat in an instant, wolfing down his food without so much as a glance across the table.

"This is great Chachamaru!" He praised, turning to beam at Eva's servant. "Even better than last time."

Chachamaru bowed at the waist in response. "Thank you, Harry," she answered in her polite, emotionless voice. "I have made necessary modifications to improve my cooking ability in order to prepare meals which are satisfactory to –"

"I think I get it," Harry cut her off, smiling uneasily. Despite living with her for years, he'd always feel a bit overwhelmed by the bevvy of information Chachamaru seemed to drop on him whenever she spoke more than a few words.

His vocabulary was quite extensive – it had to be if he were to understand anything said in Eva's mansion – but Chachamaru had the tendency to belabor a point; though, in fairness, he couldn't necessarily blame her, it was in her nature. The only problem was that if he ever wanted help understanding something, he had to specifically ask her to make it understandable to someone of his level.

Still, she was a part of Eva's mansion, their home; his dysfunctional family. Now that he stopped to think about it, he hadn't seen Chachazero, Eva's original puppet, around since the earlier chase began; odd though it may be, Harry found Chachazero's antics entertaining, even if most of them involved threats of torture or murder upon whomever had made the rather unfortunate mistake to draw Eva's ire.

Ever since he showed up, he had fallen under that umbrella as well; if someone bumped into him as he walked or made fun of his clothes and she happened to be with him, Harry had to quickly clamp his hand over her tiny mouth lest she cause a fight.

Harry shrugged his shoulders, he could always find her and the two could annoy Eva later. He turned around in his seat, intending to finish what little remained of his dinner, but stopped suddenly, eyes wide in terror.

Sitting across from him, hands folded nearly in her lap and calmly smiling at him, was Evangeline.

Curse his short attention span when it came to food!

He lowered his head, looking anywhere but the smug grin that was growing across her face, trying to find the correct words to verbalize… well, something! He wasn't quite sure what he wanted to say at this point, not like it would help anyways. Harry knew he was sunk.

A fact that was not lost on Eva, whose grin had widened enough to expose her long, lethal fangs. She leaned forward and placed her hands on the table, speaking in a light, teasing voice. "Well, go on," she said. "Run, little rabbit."

Harry didn't even bother trying; she could easily beat him to the door, hell, she could reach across the table, grab him by his shirt, pull him over to her side and pin him down before he could blink. Biting into his neck, however, would be long and drawn out, in which he'd be forced to listen to even more of her taunts.

No, he'd just sit here and let her have her way with him. Why give her any more entertainment?

Of course, if he wouldn't play along, Eva would simply make her own fun out of this. She stood and began making her way around the table, casually sauntering over to her seated prey and turning his head toward her with a single finger. "No?" she asked, in the same teasing manner. "Come now, laddie, where's that drive to escape I saw earlier? Where's that fire in your eyes I saw when you threw me?"

"You've already caught me, so just get it over with," he muttered grumpily. "I'm not going to run away just so you can have some fun."

Eva leaned forward until their noses were almost touching. "Is that so, laddie? Well, then, I'll just have to make it more fun for _both_ of us."

Harry flinched, but stayed seated. It was already too late to try anything, but her teasing wasn't helping matters at all. Oh, sure, he supposed that he could _try_ to cast a spell, but she could easily disrupt his concentration with something as simple as a flick to the head.

Or, if she was annoyed with him for hiding, she could just punch him through a wall. That being said, channeling magic right now was probably not the best idea.

Even if he did, by some act of God, manage to use magic, he'd still have to deal with Chachamaru's wrath for making a mess of her kitchen – along with Eva's subsequent cackling as he was inevitably forced to clean up whatever he'd ruined.

Harry had lost, and he knew it. With a sigh of annoyance, he tilted his head to the right, giving her access to his neck. "Just get on with it."

"You sure about that, laddie?" she continued her teasing, moving to sit down in his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck as she did so. "Come now, it's your last chance! I'm giving you every opportunity to cast a spell, you know!"

He snorted in response. "With you sitting _on_ me? Please. I wouldn't get past my activation key."

"True," she admitted. "I guess I'll just have to make my own fun, since you won't play along."

Oh, damn! That was even worse than being chased! Harry tried to squirm out of her grasp; doing everything he could to force her to release him. His efforts only served to amuse his vampiress friend, who threw her head back and cackled at his struggles.

"It's too late, laddie! I gave you plenty of opportunity for one last escape! Now, you're mine!"

"Eva –"

She placed a finger on his lips, silencing him. "Hush, laddie, you said you wanted me to get it over with, so let's cut the foreplay," Harry flinched as she drew near, baring her fangs at him. "Relax, Harry, it'll be over soon enough. Besides," she lowered her voice to a whisper; Harry shuddered as her breath tickled his ear. "We both know that you'll enjoy it."

Harry felt a sudden, jolt of pain followed by a feeling of pleasure flowing through his body. Her venom ran through his veins, numbing his muscles and leaving him with a slight tingling feeling and an inclination to stay in contact. The feeling of Eva sucking on his neck and lapping up his blood with her tongue only accentuated that feeling; his eyelids began to feel heavy, he struggled to stay awake, trying to fight both the loss of blood and Eva's venom, but to no avail.

He slipped into unconsciousness, a deep, restless sleep.

Eva let out a moan of pleasure as she swallowed his sweet blood, she forced herself to stop, or else she ran the risk of draining him dry. She might be cruel and manipulative, but that was one fate she simply wouldn't subject Harry to. Still, his blood was _very_ addicting, more so than that of her previous apprentice.

With a sigh of regret, Eva released his neck and retracted her fangs, watching in amusement as his head lolled to the side. Blood still poured from the twin puncture marks on the left side of Harry's neck; that scent was so intoxicating, so alluring that it nearly drove her to sink her fangs into him again, but she showed restraint. She knew that she couldn't take much more blood in one sitting unless she wanted to deal with him being completely immobile tomorrow.

If that happened, that troublemaker, Asuna, would go ballistic!

However, she couldn't resist at least finishing off the remaining blood on his neck; she leaned forward, slowly licking the glistening, crimson liquid up, pausing only to glance at the puncture marks she'd left.

Normally, any victim she left alive would be hers, a mindless, obedient slave, but she'd never used that part of her magic on Harry. Oh, make no mistake, she'd bitten him frequently since she'd first met him, it would require no great effort on her part to turn him into an eternal servant.

But she hadn't. That would be so… boring. It would've been such a waste of a young life, especially one so full of potential.

Eva thought back to the day she first came upon him, when she found him hiding in the woods on a cold autumn night, shivering and glancing around as if searching for his pursuer. A full-blown grin crossed her face as she recalled his initial reaction to her; she'd appeared behind him without so much as a sound, announcing her presence with a simple "Excuse me, laddie."

The five-year-old Harry had jumped nearly a foot in the air before scampering away from her, quivering with fear at her sudden appearance. It was from this that he earned the teasing nickname she'd called him by ever since that day: little rabbit.

A nickname that _still_ evoked an embarrassed blush on the aforementioned boy's face, which Eva took advantage of almost religiously.

Eva lifted him up in her arms and carried him out of the kitchen, heading away from his failed safe haven and towards his room. After being her personal blood bank and source of entertainment for the better part of two hours, it was the least she could do, better than having him sleep on the floor in some awkward position.

Besides, tomorrow _was_ a rather important day. With her old classmates coming over to visit, each intending to spend time catching up with one another and celebrating with the very boy in her arms, she had to make sure he could actually get up in the morning. Hence why she had stopped drinking from him earlier than she typically did; if she'd taken her normal amount, he'd be completely drained – no pun intended – when their guests showed up.

And the last thing she needed to hear was a lecture from her previous disciple, former teacher or not, she was, quite literally, walking this Earth before his great grandparents were even born! It should be her lecturing him! Not the other way around!

Her personal opinion aside, Eva was pleased with herself for showing such control over her thirst. Oh, sure, she'd have to drink from one of those horribly bland blood packs later this evening, but it was a sacrifice she'd just have to deal with. Harry would get plenty of rest tonight; her venom in combination with the blood loss would see to it that he didn't wake up before her tomorrow morning. He'd be recovered by then.

Which would give her and Chachamaru all the time needed to finish their preparations, and even give Eva enough time to set up her little surprise for him.

No, her thirst for his blood this evening wasn't a whim; she had planned it out. Eva had deliberately skipped drinking a blood pack last night to make her thirst for his blood, to make it real. His early bedtime was all part of her plan to make tomorrow's surprise go smoothly.

Eva gently laid him down on his bed, pulling back the covers and tucking him in just like she had the first night she met him, pausing briefly to run a hand through his jet-black hair.

"Sleep well, little rabbit," she whispered fondly, before turning and making her way to the door.

Yes, with Harry asleep, she could finish her preparations without interruption, without having to sneak around her own mansion so that he wouldn't see anything before it was ready. While she, an immortal, six hundred-year-old vampiress, didn't put much stock in these celebrations – they tended to lose their luster after a century or so – she did know how much they meant to humans, especially one as young as Harry.

After all, it wasn't every day that a boy turned eleven.

**Chapter End**


	2. A Typical Reunion

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own the **_**Harry Potter **_**series or **_**Negima!**_**, nor do I claim rights to any of their characters.**

**If you haven't read the latest chapter of maneyan's fic, Naruto: Ouroborous, you're missing out on some great work. Also, be on the lookout for the latest chapter of Heliosion's Prodigal Son in the next few days, this one is going to be big.**

**Speaking of my betas, thanks for helping guys! You've been awesome! **

**I have only one other thing to say before this chapter: Before anyone crucify me for Eva's mini rant early in the chapter, try to keep and mind her character and how she acts in canon, I am not bashing Rowling's work.**

**Thank you for your support, hope you enjoy.**

**Chapter 2: A Typical Reunion**

"_Tell me something, laddie. Why do you stay here?"_

"_What do you mean, Miss Eva?"_

"_Enough with the 'Miss', laddie, it makes me feel old."_

"_But aren't you –"_

"_Finish that and you'll regret it! Actually, there's part of it. I threaten you, I put you through brutal training, I tease you all the time, and, to top it off, I'm a vampire! But, you stay. Why?"_

"_I don't have anywhere else to go. It's not really that bad most of the time. It just gets scary when you get really mad or if you start laughing."_

"_When I laugh?"_

"_When you laugh, bad things happen."_

"_Hmmm, that and when I want to drink from you, right laddie?"_

"_Uh… yeah… that too."_

"_But the fact that I'm a vampire… that doesn't bother you?"_

"_Not really, it just means you've got longer teeth… and… like to bite me sometimes."_

" _Sometimes? Ha! You wish, laddie! You just happen to be my _favorite_ snack!"_

The Dark Evangel smiled fondly as the memory of that conversation, a discussion she had with Harry when he was but six-years-old; came to mind. He wasn't afraid of her. Oh, sure, she was frightening when she was angry – if anything, the fact that she could still send people running with just a look made her quite pleased – and when she chased him around and sunk her fangs into him, but other than that, he wasn't afraid.

To others, she was a horrible, terrifying vampire, a mage of the darkest sort. Granted, this was, in large part, due to her own actions taken to defend or prolong her life, but that was beside the point. The point was that to Harry, she was Eva.

Just Eva. His minder, his master in the arts of magic, his tutor, and his friend.

And just as she was just Eva to him, he was just Harry to her. She didn't subscribe to that whole prophesized savior nonsense that she heard coming out of the British wizarding world, a thought that caused a small frown to run across her face. That name sounded so… pathetic! It made it sound as if an entire community were defenseless and needed the help of a _child_ to save their world.

What about that kid she fought years ago? What was his name again? Moody? Yes, Alastor Moody! He'd shown some promise, even at a young age. His courage, devotion to justice – admirable, even if she often stood on the opposing side – and magical prowess forced even her to take him seriously!

Or what about Dumbledore? Now, there was a wizard of the light who knew how to duel! Why hinge the hopes of an entire community on a baby when you had the man who famously defeated Gellert Grindelwald? Hell, that was the whole bloody reason she'd sought him out! She wanted to see the man himself in action, even if it meant that she had to step into the spotlight and engage him on the grand stage.

She'd won eventually, but, oh, what a duel it had been!

That being said, the fact that an entire community, based in _her homeland_, no less, could hinge everything on an infant and saddle him with such a pathetically, ridiculously unimaginative name made her want to bash her head against a wall. Repeatedly.

The Boy-Who-Lived? Seriously? _That's_ what they went with? At least make it something imaginative, something awe inspiring like "Death Cheater", something that would make wizard and mage alike think twice – no, thrice! – before even looking upon him!

Anything but that bland, hyphenated, half-witted excuse for a name!

Whatever. That name didn't matter to either of them. Harry was her disciple, he'd earn enough monikers through his actions in the future, nearly as numerous and fearsome as her own or those of her previous disciple.

Petty annoyances about her disciple's nickname aside, Eva's preparations were complete, everything was ready for today's little gathering. Which, of course, meant that it was only a matter of time before her lovely castle became the site of the utter chaos that seemed to follow Negi and the Ala Alba wherever they went. Eva sighed and ran a hand down her face in exasperation; yes, in just a few scant hours, her nice, relaxing home would be subjected to the antics, laughter and general hijinks of her former class.

As much as she did miss them at times – not that she would _ever_ admit that to anyone – they did wear on her nerves, even if their rambunctious natures made it oh so easy for her to create chaos amongst them with minimal effort, and then gave her the chance to sit back, watch and enjoy the feeble attempts of her previous disciple to cool the flames.

Oh, well. Might as well wake the sleeping little rabbit up and get him moving; he'd sleep all day if she let him, even if he knew that was against one of her rules.

Feh. He really should know better than that. Taking her out for a drink was no excuse to lie in bed like a useless lump all day. No, no, no, he knew her little rule on the matter. She only allowed him that luxury if he was sick, and if that was his excuse, he'd _better_ be physically unable to lift himself out of bed.

Eva pushed open his bedroom door and, sure enough, was met by the sight of her lazy, little disciple sleeping peacefully, snoring softly into his pillow. He was so very lucky that they didn't have a training session scheduled right now, or he'd be in for a world of pain.

Actually, he was still in for pain, just not as much as he could be…

Still, it wouldn't be any fun for her if he behaved all the time. "Oh, how sweet," she cried in faux adoration of the scene before her, clasping her hands in front of her chest like a lovesick girl and walking towards his bed. "He looks so peaceful!" Her smile changed from sickly sweet to wicked almost instantly, she unclasped her hands and leaned down and took hold of the edge of his mattress. "I _hate_ peaceful! Get up, brat!"

Harry was jolted from his sleep, letting out a shout of panic as he found himself flung from his nice, comfortable bed onto the carpeted, but still quite hard, floor. He groaned in pain, rubbing his back with one hand and muttering a few choice words under his breath. This wasn't the first time he'd been woken from his sleep in such a manner, but it didn't help that he still felt exhausted from being drained last night.

"Miserable old bat!" He grumbled venomously into the carpet.

The grumbling boy was grabbed by the neck and hoisted up to meet the glinting eyes and dark smirk of his ever-violent friend. "What was that, laddie?" She asked, turning an ear towards him as if to hear him more clearly. "Speak up! I can't hear you when you mumble into the carpet."

There was no sign of the skittish, little five-year-old boy she met in the woods six years ago, nor did he stammer out apologies as her former apprentice; years of being exposed to Eva's mannerisms had rubbed off on Harry. He mirrored her own smirk and gazed back into her eyes defiantly, leaning closer to her before speaking in a clear voice.

"Miserable. Old. _Bat_!" He said slowly, deliberately emphasizing each syllable of his chosen insult.

"You've got guts, laddie," Eva praised with a nod. "I like that in a victim."

Harry's smirk just widened into a grin; that wasn't one of her typical, pre-homicidal rage threats. This next part, however, would probably be pushing his luck… naturally, he was going to throw caution to the wind and follow the example of the rather powerful vampiress who currently had him by the throat. "Could've been worse. I could've called you Kit- ACK!" Eva tightened her grip, causing him to gasp for air and flail his limbs in panic.

Okay. He'd gone a bit too far with that one.

Gone was the playful smirk on the cute, eternal ten-year-old's face; in its place was an annoyed scowl. "Watch yourself, laddie," she ground out through gritted teeth. "That idiot only gets away with calling me that because I haven't found a way to kill him yet!"

"Noted!" He gasped weakly.

With a satisfied nod, Eva released her grip on his neck, letting her smirk return as he dropped painfully to the floor and cursed again. _Still got it!_ She crowed mentally. "Oh, quit moaning!" She snapped at the prone boy. "You know the rules! If I'm up in the morning, so are you!"

"Well, maybe I wouldn't be so exhausted if _somebody_ didn't drink my blood last night!" Harry fired back with equal venom, only to yelp in pain as Eva delivered a kick – light by her standards – to his ribs. He rubbed his aching ribs, glaring up at the smirking vampiress, trying to keep his mouth shut lest he say something that actually drew her ire.

Eva simply rolled her eyes at his glare, it was nowhere near as threatening as hers, and decided to take this conversation a different route entirely. "You know, you don't have to feign anger to get a chance to look up my skirt, laddie," she teased, gesturing downward at her black skirt. "All you had to do was ask."

Sure enough, the glaring boy's eyes widened in shock, his cheeks reddened heavily as he began stammering out a rather hasty denial, eliciting a mad cackle from the blond terror.

"You're too easy!" Eva said in between bouts of laughter, savoring that embarrassed and scandalized look on his young face. "Now, seriously, get up and get moving, you're not lying in bed all day even if it's your birthday."

That brought Harry's stammers to an abrupt halt. "It's my birthday?" he asked, tilting his head in confusion. Harry turned his gaze to the clock resting on his nightstand, and found the date 'July 31' displayed in bright, green on the digital screen. "Huh. I totally forgot."

"You're such an idiot," she groaned, dragging a hand down her face and giving him a reproachful look. "How the hell do you forget your own birthday?"

"Well, excuse me if training in that little, time warp, bottle resort of yours screws up my sense of time! It's not exactly natural to compress in a full day's load of training in their into just an hour out here!"

So maybe he had a point there, she'd give him that. "Whatever," she said dismissively. "Well, happy birthday, many happy returns and all that. Now, get your ass in gear before I give you a celebratory thrashing!"

"Fine, fine," he muttered, pushing himself up to his knees and trying to stand, only for them to buckle under him in his weakened state.

Eva quickly reached out and caught him, steadying him and making sure he wasn't about to pass out on her. Maybe she did take a bit too much last night. "You okay?" she asked, all signs of teasing gone.

Harry nodded, testing his legs before standing up straight. "I should be, I just didn't think about the effects of you draining me last night."

Now knowing that the boy in question was in no danger of collapsing, she resumed her light teasing. "Don't say it like that in front of Kagurazaka," Eva grinned mischievously. "Or she might get the wrong idea."

An involuntary shiver ran down the young boy's spine at the thought of the short-tempered magic canceller's rampages; lock him in a room with Chachazero any day of the week, he'd take listening to her bloodlust filled rants, listening to her come up with torture technique and creepy giggling over dealing with the harisen wielding girl.

"Yeah, that would be bad," he conceded.

"Understatement of the year, laddie. Anyway, Chachamaru's getting breakfast ready, so I want you showered and at the table in ten minutes," When Harry simply rolled his eyes playfully, smiled, nodded and slowly went about searching through his dresser for his clothes, Eva frowned in annoyance; that little brat was acting like this was some practiced routine! As if her demands to be taken lightly!

She'd have to fix that little problem right here and now. A grin crossed her face as an idea came to mind; yes, that would do nicely. Even if he didn't finish up on time, she'd still have her way.

This was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

As Harry finished pulling a red shirt from one of the drawers, Eva crept up behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders, causing him to freeze in surprise. "You have nine minutes left," she said flirtatiously. "And if you're not sitting in your place at the table when time's up, I'll join you in the shower, laddie."

If Eva didn't know better – and she did – she'd say that her little rabbit had managed to somehow learn her Instant Movement ability without her instruction; one second she had her arms around his shoulders, the next, she blinked and he was out of her grasp and down the hall, with the sound of the washroom door echoing throughout the castle as he slammed it shut behind him.

Teasing that little boy was just too easy sometimes.

**LINE BREAK**

Harry sprinted to the kitchen, trying frantically to beat the clock. Oh, it wouldn't matter that he'd gotten out of the shower and _almost_ made it to his spot, Eva didn't do 'almost'. If he wasn't in that seat, she'd literally drag him back to the shower, never mind the fact that he'd already washed.

An involuntary shudder raced through the young boy's spine; this wouldn't be the first time that Eva had followed through on that particular threat. Hell, sometimes she would just walk in without knocking, join him and order him to scrub her back, smirking and giving him a look that clearly stated that this was no joke, that she expected him to do his newly appointed job _quite _thoroughly.

The fact that her eyes seemed to glint in a manner that made it seem as if she were daring him to refuse her, made him even more nervous. Nothing around here was too sacred for Eva to violate; if she wanted something, she'd get it. Really, all he could do was go along with it and hope it didn't end with too many of his bones being broken, occasionally getting a verbal jab or two in at her expense.

But refusing her demands, especially when she gave him _that_ particular smirk? Never. Not in a million years. Her tendency to push people's buttons may have rubbed off on him, but there was a fine line between pushing buttons and putting the barrel of a loaded gun in his mouth.

Defying Eva fell into the latter category.

As he approached the kitchen door, he skidded to a halt on the hardwood floor, nearly sliding straight into the wall in his haste to make it in time. He nearly dove inside, rushing for his seat, praying that he was on time.

He flung himself into his designated spot, gasping for breath, and shooting Eva a tired grin. "Made… it… heh!" But Eva wasn't looking at him; in fact, she had her face in her hand and seemed to be muttering something under her breath, while massaging the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb.

Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion; there was a long list of things that drew Eva's ire, but few made her react in such a manner. Her typical response was to either go on a death threat filled rant or blast the object of her annoyance out of existence, so this was some rather unfamiliar territory for him.

Turning to Chachamaru, he was met with yet another unfamiliar sight, one that only served to increase his worry; her expression, despite the fact that she was a machine, showed a great deal of annoyance, mixed with a bit of resignation. As she met Harry's gaze, the gynoid simply shook her head in exasperation and pointed to something behind him.

After a moment's thought, he couldn't resist; he just had to look and see just what could elicit such a reaction from the sadistic vampiress. He twisted himself around, his curiosity just _had_ to be satisfied here.

Harry's mouth dropped, his emerald green eyes nearly bulged out of his head like one of those anime characters he'd seen on TV! He should've known, he _really_ should've seen something like this coming. No matter how many times he insisted, scolded or even begged her not to do this on his birthday, she ignored him. Of course, that really shouldn't be much of a surprise either, considering that she defied her own master and creator on a regular basis.

"CHACHAZERO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" He shouted once he managed to find his voice.

Evangeline's original partner, a sadistic, green haired doll with small, bat wings and garbed in a maid outfit, the very doll that Chachamaru was modeled after, looked up and grinned at her master's younger disciple, waving one of her small knives at him in greeting; one of her small, _freshly sharpened_ knives.

"Hiya, Harry!" She called cheerfully, as though she wasn't standing over a defenseless, tied up kitten that she'd captured and was readying for the kill. "Just getting ready to put the finishing touches on your birthday present!"

If she was trying to calm the panicking boy down, Chachazero was doing a horrible job. "But… you… I… I've told you that I don't want you to kill for my birthday!"

"Well, that's an irritating limitation, don't you think? What if we're attacked by vampire hunters or something and I can't fight alongside Master because I promised you I wouldn't kill? You really didn't think that one through."

"I NEVER SAID YOU COULDN'T FIGHT!" He yelled, flailing his arms comically. "I SAID DON'T KILL ANYTHING _FOR_ MY BIRTHDAY!"

"I still don't see the problem, kiddo."

Eva cleared her throat, drawing their attention over to her. "I think it's the matter of you trying to sacrifice small animals – like that kitten you've got tied up – in honor of him each year, you impudent doll."

Harry never thought he'd see the day that Evangeline A. K. McDowell, the Girl Queen of the Night, would save a kitten's life, but stranger things had occurred.

To Chachazero, this was a major travesty! This was her way of celebrating the newest member of her master's clan – the previous disciple and his little entourage had been the first wave of additions, and now Harry was the youngest member of the McDowell Clan, by her logic. Since she was Eva's original partner, she was supposed to be the de facto crazy aunt of the group. That's just how it was! Eva was the head of the clan, Chachazero was the crazy aunt, Chachamaru was the kind, doting aunt, the Ala Alba were the rambunctious older siblings, and Harry was the mischievous little boy, the one Eva had gotten ahold of early and slowly corrupted him with her dark sense of humor and tendencies.

But he still held onto a few of those annoying human morals, which made it rather difficult for the sadistic little puppet to properly – in her view – celebrate his birthday, or his other major accomplishments, for that matter.

Horrified, Chachazero made one last attempt to make Harry see reason. Well, reason to her, at least. "But –"

"No," Eva cut her off, giving her no chance to speak. "Just no. It's his birthday, if he doesn't want you sacrificing animals as celebration, then you'll respect his wishes or answer to me!"

The little puppet hung her head in defeat, saddened by the loss of opportunity to shed some blood. "Yes, master," she ground out, Harry let lose a sigh of relief. Chachazero was usually quite obstinate, but once Eva touched on a subject that meant something to her, she stepped in line.

And, as previously stated, the sadistic little puppet had grown quite attached to him over the years; sometimes, he wondered how they'd managed to get along when he was younger, back when he was even more horrified at her near constant lust for blood and suffering. Somehow, due to reasons beyond his understanding, they had.

Which meant that he also had to try to dissuade her from performing these sacrificial rituals every time his birthday came around… and the occasional attempt whenever he was able to master a particularly difficult spell or skill that Eva taught him.

Easier said than done. That poor little bird…

Time for a change of topic, but first, he needed to get Chachazero away from that kitten. Not that he didn't trust Eva's familiar, she wouldn't actually do something that would upset him as long as he said so. Sometimes she just had a little trouble restraining herself because of her rather short attention span.

"C'mere, Zero," he said, picking her up off the counter and placing her on his shoulder, her preferred spot. Her mood shifted almost instantly, her dejected look vanished as she gave a cheer, all disappointment at not having her fun gone. Even if she didn't get to give him her present, she still got to sit atop his shoulder, a right reserved only for her. "So," Harry began as he took his seat once again. "When are the others coming?"

"Oh?" Eva asked, a sly look creeping across her face. "So concerned with boya and his crowd, are you? Are the three of us not enough fun for you anymore?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Harry deadpanned. "It's just been a while since they last visited."

"Yes, yes, I know, laddie. That's why I told boya that he's to be here on time under or he'll suffer a slow, painful death."

Harry shot a teasing grin at her in response. "You threatened him for me? I'm touched, Eva!"

She chuckled and shook her head. "Knock it off, or I'll 'touch' you so hard you go through the wall."

"Ha! Not a chance! You're just mad that I've finally got something on you!"

"Hmmm, you really think so? Unfortunately, you've forgotten something rather important."

"Oh, yeah?" He asked mockingly. "What's that?"

"Just the little fact that I have years of dirt on you, laddie. So, please, give me a reason to use it," that wicked, fanged grin crossed her face again as Harry's eyes widened in understanding.

"You wouldn't!" He whispered.

"Harry, Harry, Harry," she said pityingly, shaking her head at his foolishness. "You forget who you're dealing with."

"You… you sadistic, evil little harpy!"

That only served to amuse her even more. "Flattery will get you nowhere, little rabbit," she grinned at his attempt at a death glare, not quite up to her standards yet. "Well, nowhere _you_ want it to go."

"As long as it doesn't end with me being sucked dry, I'll take my chances."

Before Eva could fire back with one of her typical, incredibly creepy threats, a familiar young man's voice called from just outside the kitchen. "Who's getting sucked dry, now?" A slightly tanned, red-haired young man of average height, garbed in tan robes and carrying a long, wooden staff in one hand, entered the room, looking mildly amused that he'd walked in on one of their little banter sessions.

"How the hell did you get in here without my knowing, boya?" Eva was never one for niceties when someone got around her security, even if that person happened to be her previous disciple.

Negi, long accustomed to her antics, just smiled. "I had a good teacher," he said, knowing full well that praising his master was the easiest way to escape her ire.

"Suck up," Harry accused with a sly smirk, very similar to one of Eva's, on his face.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Negi feigned innocence. "I was simply giving credit to the one who taught me nearly everything I know."

"Uh-huh, and the fact that you were about to become a bloody smear on the wall had nothing to do with it I'm sure."

Negi quirked an eyebrow and grinned, giving in to one of his rare urges to tease someone. "When you have as much experience as me, you learn to pick your battles, but don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough, _little rabbit_ – WHOA!" He barely reacted in time to catch a spoon that was aimed at his forehead with the force and accuracy only the blond, glaring vampiress could manage.

"That's _my_ nickname for him, boya!" She snapped, even more annoyed that he stopped her attempt at concussing him. "Get your own damn material!"

A certain raven-haired boy and sadistic doll snickered at the fuming Girl Queen of Darkness and nervously chuckling Negi, but Harry wasn't content with just sitting back and watching. "Yeah, _boya_, get – OW!" Unfortunately, Harry forgot that, unlike Negi, he was nowhere near the strength or speed of the easily irritated blond in question, the same blond whose anger was now turned on him, so he didn't react in time to block Eva's open handed smack to the side of his head.

"That goes double for you, brat!" The two disciples in question shared a look, Negi just shrugged but Harry took the more impudent route and rolled his eyes.

Eva's nicknames for them were just that: hers. No one else used them, not even the boys themselves. It didn't even matter that "boya" and "laddie" essentially meant the same thing, it was more based on the places they met Eva: Negi in Japan and Harry in Britain.

Thus, they were "boya" and "laddie" respectively, with various names, such as "little rabbit", added on over time. No questions, no additional explanations were needed. But most importantly, much like they were _her_ disciples, therefore only she was allowed to beat the living hell out of them, those were _her_ nicknames for them.

Only she got to use them, others were in grave danger of losing life and limb should they violate this unspoken rule.

Harry rubbed the side of his head, wincing slightly, but refrained from antagonizing Eva any further; there was a danger of bringing an impromptu training session upon him if he did, even if it was his birthday. He decided to let it go and return to teasing his senior disciple, it had been a while since they'd seen one another. "Fine, Negi's still a suck up though!" He said, sticking his tongue out childishly.

"I most certainly am not!" the former English teacher protested. "I just have years of experience, with Master and other women, I know what I should or shouldn't say or do around them."

"Didn't you say there was a word for that?" Harry asked, turning to Eva in mock confusion. "I could've sworn there was."

"As a matter of fact, there is!" She supplied, grinning slyly. "This is a new one for you, laddie, so you might want to write it down, but boya here is in a stage in his relationship with his wives that the rest of the world likes to call 'whipped'."

Negi sputtered frantic denials, blushing heavily as his pseudo younger brother and former master laughed heavily, holding their ribs and pounding on the table, at his expression. "W-Well, it's not my fault!" He cried in protest.

"Oh, but it is, boya," Eva grinned. "This all could have been avoided if you'd have actually been a man and given a straight answer instead of stumbling and stuttering through some half-assed excuse about loving all of them when they cornered you."

Ah, yes. Negi's rather complex relationship with his various pactio partners was a rather (ahem) interesting subject, to say the least.

Most of the girls he made provisional contracts with had romantic feelings from him as early as his tenth birthday, some even before that. A select few, however, felt more platonic, big sister-little brother type relationships with him; Asuna, who turned out to be his distant cousin on his mother's side, played the role of overprotective, hard-handed disciplinarian, Konoka played the role of the kindly, but teasing big sister, and Setsuna the part of the model of maturity, duty and dedication while they pursued their own _alternative_ relationship. Even Ayaka, the 2/3-A class representative, realized that the affection she felt for him was based heavily on her desire to have a little brother, to fill the void of losing her brother at birth when she and the rest of the class were in kindergarten.

Others, however, maintained their crushes on him to the point where he was dealing with several girls vying for his love. The end result of this was a rather amusing – to Eva – combination of predictable chaos and small surprises.

The predictable side of this "brilliant" solution came about when Negi was cornered by the likes of Nodoka, Yue, Haruna, Ku Fei, Kaede, Chisame and Kazumi one day. The first surprising element of this little tale was that Nodoka and Yue, not Kazumi or Haruna as Eva would've assumed, were the masterminds behind it; Yue was only slightly more confident, but she also took Nodoka's feelings into consideration, as she was too afraid to lose her friendship with the shy librarian.

Nodoka, however, was another story entirely. Where she got the courage to confront her former teacher _again_ was a mystery to Eva, but, somehow, she did.

So, the female coalition cornered him after class one day, and gave him an ultimatum: tell them which girl he felt the most for, or they would decide.

The latter part of that ultimatum should've caused alarm bells to ring in his head, but these subtleties had never been Negi's strong suit.

In yet another predictable move, Negi stumbled, sputtered and apologized his way through one of his typical "You're my students, I like all of you equally, blah blah blah" excuses, all while being his usual polite, charming self. But that wasn't the answer the girls were looking for, not this time around.

They followed through on their threat and debated their decision, with Kaede and Ku Fei making sure that he couldn't escape or weasel his way out of being present until the very end.

Eva would've paid good money to see the look on his face when his passage was blocked by two of the "martial arts monsters" of Mahora Academy.

However, the finale was, in her opinion, the kicker. Of all people, she would've thought that Haruna – that constantly giggling, scheming little manga girl – would've made some perverse comment to get them started down that path.

Of all people, it was _Chisame_.

The cosplaying, number one net idol in both Japan and the Mundas Magicus, the same girl who berated Negi and other members of the Ala Alba for somehow defying what was "possible" and denounced the red-haired mage as an enemy of women due to the way he – albeit, unintentionally – charmed his way into the girls' lives – of course, she conveniently ignored the fact that she was just as guilty of falling for him as anyone else – she was the direct cause of Negi's current situation.

Though, truth be told, it was yet another incident in which her sarcasm backfired horribly.

Eva openly admitted that listening to Chisame rant about the irrational solution they came up with as a result of her making a simple joke was definitely in her top five amusing things. It ranked somewhere between drinking her disciples' blood and watching them cower in fear of her maniacal laughter or evil schemes. Her only regrets were that she wasn't there to witness the whole thing herself, and that she didn't have a camera to get pictures of both Negi and Chisame's faces when the super hacker opened her mouth.

"For the love of – we're going nowhere with getting him to decide or even figure this out ourselves! Hell, at this point it's more likely that we'll end up _sharing_ the little womanizer…"

Unfortunately, it took Chisame's brain a few seconds to catch up and realize what just came out of her mouth. _Share_ Negi? No way! No way in hell! She did _not_ just suggest that of all things!

But she had, and the others – minus the weakly protesting and thoroughly blushing Negi – took to this idea quite well. The young man in question continued trying to protest, but he was shot down when they reminded him that he missed his chance to make the decision, now he had no choice whatsoever; plus, as Haruna pointed out, he _did_ say that he felt for all of them in the same way.

Eventually, he gave in, hanging his head in defeat and submitting to their "master plan". Everybody won, nobody went home broken hearted and in tears, everybody was happy!

Except for Chisame, who tried fervently to retract her sarcastic remark and make them see reason, but she was quieted when Kaede simply told her that she was free to be "just friends" with the young mage.

Naturally, she did a complete one-eighty and bluntly informed Negi that their first date had better be special and taking her to a convention didn't count!

When Eva heard the full story, she made a rather hasty excuse that she had to go put Harry through some impromptu training and quickly ran home… and burst out laughing.

The sight of the blond vampiress laughing her head off, rolling on the floor with tears of mirth rolling down her face, was quite unsettling for the nine-year-old, who promptly scampered off to find Chachamaru in hopes that she might either be able to stop his sadistic master's laughter or offer him some assurance that he was in no danger.

Since then, Eva and Harry went out of their way to remind him that he was, for all intents and purpose, the manservant of seven college girls; the fact that he just couldn't say "no" to anything said girls asked for was just gravy.

"So, Negi," Eva began after finally getting her laughter under control. "Have your girls decided on a uniform for you yet? I mean it's only fair since you got to see them in schoolgirl outfits before you hit puberty!"

The red-head's reaction was quite predictable; blushing heavily, looking down and stammering denials, only serving to amuse the other two even more.

Harry, while not quite getting what Eva was hinting at, took it a step further. "Are they taking suggestions? If so, I think we can have Chachamaru make a matching maid outfit in your size!"

"While it is within my ability to do so, Negi is not the appropriate gender to wear an outfit such as mine, Harry," the robotic maid supplied helpfully, only serving to make the raven-haired mage in training groan and place his head in his hand.

Without removing his hand or raising his head, he began complaining to the reliable, though a bit naïve, gynoid. "Damn it, 'Maru! It was a joke! You're supposed to play along!"

"Language, Harry!" she chided sharply, walking over to the sink and beginning to clean off the pans she'd used.

"English, Japanese, French..."

"Your sarcasm does not change the fact that such foul language belies your character."

"My language belies my… that just pisses me off," he grumbled.

She turned to face him, looking stern despite her constant emotionless expression. "Again, that sort of language should not be used by a boy your age. If you must, please say 'I disagree' or 'that irritates me'."

"Does this happen often?" Negi whispered to Eva out of the corner of his mouth as he observed the gynoid trying to explain the benefits of using appropriate, polite language to the stubborn, young disciple.

"Almost daily," Eva said, pausing to take a sip of her morning tea. "Though, I think Harry just pretends to get annoyed with her. It's their gimmick, I suppose. Enough about them, they'll probably finish in a moment, what brings you here so early? We weren't expecting you and your harem (she pointedly ignored his stern look at her word choice) until noon."

The young man in question gave an uneasy grin, which immediately told Eva that he was about to come up with one of his half-baked excuses. "What? Can't I come by just to spend time with my master and her latest disciple?"

"You know full well that you're free to," she admitted. "But, considering that I had to make you swear not to be late under penalty of having your eyeballs removed and force fed to you with a spoon, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there's an alternative reason."

He chuckle uneasily, both at the reminder of her threat and at her uncanny ability to see right through him. "Well, let's just say that I needed a… a little break from the house."

"A little break?" she parroted, quirking an eyebrow at him and impatiently drumming her fingers on the countertop. Negi flinched slightly; this was _not_ good.

Eva's Disciples Unspoken Rule #1: A bored or impatient master is a dangerous master. Run fast and run far!

"The girls have… umm… been a bit demanding lately, so I needed to get out of the house for a while," he admitted sheepishly. "But I'm not trying to use that as an excuse to spend time here; I missed out on my usual visit last month because of some rather… unforeseen complications…"

A slender, blonde brow quirked higher as Eva's interest peaked. "Such as?"

Her foolish disciple blushed heavily, yet again. "Like I said, the girls have been a bit demanding lately… please don't make me say it!"

"Boya… are you telling me that you skipped out on us last month because your harem was in heat?" Negi gulped, thanking whatever gods there were that she couldn't flash freeze him with a glare. Though, that didn't stop her from trying.

But, honesty was the best policy, especially when the tiny vampiress before him was involved. Any attempt at lying would make his suffering more prolonged. He nodded once. "Yes," he squeaked, still quite fearful of her wrath, before offering up one final, weak excuse. "I tried to escape."

"You _tried_ to escape? _Tried_? Boya, do I need to beat the hell out of you like I did in the old days? Are you so bloody pathetic that a few girls giving you the damn puppy dog pout stops you in your tracks?" His silence all but confirmed it. Eva made as if to stand and make good on her threat, but she stopped suddenly as an idea came to mind. With a grin, she turned to her younger disciple and servant and interrupted their ongoing debate. "Hey, laddie! I've got a better suggestion than the maid outfit! With the way those girls of his lead him around, I'd say he should wear a dog collar and leash!"

Harry paused to consider this new information, giving his sputtering, blushing, senior disciple a quick one over just to visualize it. "I can see it," he declared after a moment. "Maybe he can ask Kotaro and Natsumi if they have a spare lying around."

"Little jerk," Negi grumped. "You wouldn't be laughing if you were in my shoes. Those girls are relentless! I thought they'd back off a bit after a while but they've gotten worse!"

"Add in the fact that Ku Fei and Kaede probably want sparring sessions in between rounds, right?" Eva mocked.

"As a matter of fact, yes." This blunt admission gave the teasing duo some pause.

Negi was typically very quiet about his relationships with the girls, anytime someone other than his former students or friends brought it up; he either went silent or hastily changed the subject. Not that he was embarrassed by the girls themselves, he just felt that his private life should be just that.

Private.

He used to be that way around Eva, always so afraid that he might set her off if he said something wrong, but that had changed over the years. Well, somewhat, at least. The young man still had to watch his step whenever she exhibited the telltale signs of a murderous rage, other than that, he could freely confide in her without any worry that she tell anyone.

Unless Haruna or Asakura bribed her enough, then he was screwed in more ways than one. He shuddered at that particular memory; there was a reason that he'd vowed to never again tell his master _any_ specifics about his sex life. Why the hell he'd admitted to her that he was surprised that he was still a virgin at seventeen and even more so that the girls hadn't just jumped him in order to rectify that, he would never understand.

Eva just had a way of pulling information out of him; whether it be coaxing it out of him through conversation or via a brutal beat down, she always got her way in the end. The fact that she'd gotten to Harry early and had slowly begun corrupting him, turning the formerly shy, innocent little boy into a mischievous, evil mastermind – for a kid, at least – over the course of the past six years was a bit frightening but, at the same time, a bit comforting.

Truth be told, he worried about Eva after he left her tutelage. Sure, he still visited, but he worried that she might grow bitter or, even worse, bored and relapse into her days as the Dark Evangel. If that had happened, he would've had to confront her; not a prospect he relished both due to her unparalleled skill and his relationship with her.

When she found Harry and decided to give him a home, Negi was relieved. When she named the tiny five-year-old her disciple, he was overjoyed! True, he was allowing a young boy to be exposed to, trained and molded by Eva and her dark magic, but, from experience, there was no better master to have. While Eva might be a brutal, sadistic taskmaster, she guarded her disciples jealously.

As previously stated, no one took what was hers.

Reservations about exposing another young boy - younger than he'd been - to the Dark Evangel aside, Negi had no objections to this. In fact, this was a bit relaxing, cathartic even. Just a kid being a kid and his petulant, antagonistic master being her normal self. It was all par for the course, the usual routine.

Make no mistake, he loved the girls dearly, but even he needed a break; a bit of Negi time, so to speak. Such down time was rather difficult to come by when you were in the rather odd situation of being in a relationship with seven girls, each of whom were _willing_ and _accepting_ of this to the point that they acted almost like a unit; they overruled _him_ in order to make _him_ participate in their – more often than not, lewd – antics.

The honeymoon had been… Well, let's just say that Eva and Harry - when Eva explained the physical elements of romantic relationships to him – were quite surprised that he made it out in one piece. Everyone knew that Haruna was perverse, but the things that she'd done… Haruna's acts of debauchery in general were best left unsaid, but those from the honeymoon were especially deviant.

But, considering that Eva had a tendency to dress her servants as French maids and Harry was practically a glutton for punishment if his penchant for pressing her buttons was any indication, neither really had any room to talk.

The stunned duo snapped out of their shocked state, each with their own questions in mind. Harry somehow managed to beat his normally verbose master to the punch. "So… how exactly does that work?" he finally worked out. "I mean, with Ku Fei I'd expect her to put some sort of added stipulations on there."

"Indeed," Eva nodded in agreement, a smirk gracing her features once again. "And Kaede would go right along with them, especially if they involved getting boya into the –"

"OKAY! THAT'S MORE THAN ENOUGH!" Negi cried, frantically flailing his arms.

"Aw, c'mon, Negi!"

"NO!"

"Oh, suck it up, you pathetic, whining disciple! Most men would _kill_ to be in your position!"

The redhead glared in response, showing rare defiance in the face of his former master. "Most men don't realize that keeping up with multiple girls is damn near impossible! If it weren't for certain… magical augmentations, I'd be dead after a night with them!"

"So, basically, you abuse the hell out of Magia Erebea and a stamina spell," Harry snickered, much to his predecessor's annoyance. "And you tell _me_ not to abuse magic!"

Eva shot Negi an amused look. "A disciple of mine? Abuse magic? _Wherever_ would you get such an idea, boya?"

The glare she got in response told her all she needed to know about her former disciple's opinion on the matter. Needless to say, she had no desire for him to go into "teacher mode" and listen to another bloody lecture!

Seven years might seem like a long time to us humans, but to her it was like she just escaped the School Hell curse yesterday!

Best nip this one in the bud quick or he'd go on for _hours_. "So, Harry," she quickly shifted focus to the younger boy. "How far have you gotten on that spell I gave you to learn a couple of days ago?"

Harry scrunched his nose in confusion, looking at her as if she'd grown a second head. "You… didn't give me a spell a couple of days ago."

_Shit!_ "Yes I did!"

"No, you didn't," he insisted. "The last three training sessions we've had were, in order, conditioning, casting speed and aikido. You didn't give me a single new spell in any of those."

"I'm well aware of the schedule, thank you very much! Considering that I'm the one who put the damn thing together," she snapped, racking her brain to come up with something to convince him that she was right, giving her more of a chance of avoiding the return of Negi-sensei. _Got it!_ "I gave it to you at the end of the aikido session, laddie! Don't you remember?"

The boy in question opened his mouth to retort, but stopped short, pausing to think about it. "I… I can't really remember much of it," he admitted. "Last thing I remember was you tossing me face first into a wall."

_Bingo!_ "Are you freaking kidding me?" Eva shouted, leaping to her feet to play up her act as the angry master. "You can't remember one damn spell, because of a little bump on your head?"

"Bump on the head? I was knocked unconscious, you psycho!"

"And somehow, you were perfectly fine afterwards!"

"I woke up three hours later! The wall had cracks in it from where I hit!"

"Alright, let's all calm down and look at this rationally," Negi interjected smoothly, quickly repositioning himself so he could prevent either of them from leaping across the table. "Harry, you may have had a minor concussion, so it would make sense that you can't remember much," he explained calmly, mentally sighing in relief as Harry grudgingly accepted the possibility, before turning to Eva and giving her a more stern look. "And you should know better than to throw him into a wall, Eva! With your strength, you could've done a lot worse to him!"

Eva rolled her eyes and waved him off dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before. It's nothing I didn't put you through, boya, so I really don't see why you're complaining."

The normally calm, pacifistic teacher snapped. "He isn't me _goddammit_!"

The conversation came to a screeching halt, Chachamaru turned from her cleaning to gape at her former teacher, hell, even Chachazero stopped egging them on.

Negi and Harry were two completely different people, two disciples of different breeds; everyone knew that, no one was that ignorant. Still, the Ala Alba, especially Negi, tried to avoid comparing the two, for the sake of the younger boy's sense of confidence. It really wasn't fair to compare anyone, let alone Harry, to the so-called once in a lifetime prodigy who was hailed as "the God of Lightning".

Trying to salvage the situation, Negi frantically began apologizing. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean –"

"It's fine," Harry shrugged, a smile returning to his face. "It's not exactly news, y'know. Hardly anyone can measure up to you in terms of power or how quickly you gained it."

" I know, but that doesn't give me the right to –"

The boy cut his senior off with a laugh. "Why are you so bothered by it? I'm not. So, out of the two of us, you're the prodigy and I'm the slow disciple. Big deal! All that means is that I take longer to learn the spells." He paused for a moment as a thought came to him. "Speaking of which, I should probably make sure none of your darker books are lying around my room, Eva. Last time Asuna found one, she about had an aneurism." Without giving either of them a chance to respond, he stood, handed his empty plate to Chachamaru – who stayed silent, merely giving him a sad smile, still rather shocked by his casual demeaning of his own character – before leaving with the psychotic puppet, chattering and laughing all the way.

While the green haired gynoid simply hung her head for a second, before turning back to her work, running calculations and scenarios through her simulator in order to find some way to convince Harry to stop talking about himself in that manner, Eva and Negi weren't so content with the silence.

"He still says that about himself?" Negi asked, more of a rhetorical question than anything.

The vampiress sighed in frustration, bringing her hands up to massage her temples. "Yes!" She snapped. "I've tried everything to get him to stop! Threatening, screaming, counseling, hell, I even broke character and had a heartfelt discussion with the little brat, but he _still_ won't stop!"

"Is he bitter about it? I can stop coming around if my being here causes –"

"Don't you even _think_ about finishing that!" she lifted her head up to glare at him. "If anything, that would just cause more problems! Besides," her voice lowered, taking on one more associated with a concerned friend than an angry master. "I'm not even sure if he thinks that about himself or if he accepts it and really just uses it to get a laugh at his own expense."

Negi quirked an eyebrow and folded his arms over his chest. "A joke?" he asked. "He calls himself 'slow' as a joke? In comparison to me? Forgive me if I sound arrogant, master," he switched back to her old title, giving clear indication that he was taking this issue seriously. "But that's like comparing apples and pears; he can't learn at the same rate I did. Hell, _I_ shouldn't have been able to!"

"I know!" Eva groaned. "But try telling that to him! He looks at what we've done, how monstrously strong we are, and holds us up on a freaking pedestal! You especially, since you gained your power in less than two years."

"Again, that's unhealthy, don't you think? Isn't that too much pressure for him to put on himself?"

"Normally, I'd say yes, but I'm not so sure it's actually a case of him pressuring himself. It's rather complicated."

"I've got time." He smiled, sitting in the chair previously occupied by Harry. "So, what's your theory?"

"Let me answer that with a question of my own," she began. "You've heard of his legacy in Britain, correct?"

Negi snorted in amusement. "I'd be surprised if anyone hasn't! He was the talk of both magical communities; everyone was trying to figure out how he managed to defeat Voldemort. Of course," here, he grinned slyly, causing Eva to palm her forehead, knowing exactly what was coming next. "All that buzz stopped when he suddenly 'disappeared' from his relatives' home. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," the blond deadpanned. "No can we please focus?"

"Alright, alright! Yes, I heard the story, how his parents stood up against the supposed most powerful Dark Lord since Grindelwald, how both died and Voldemort turned his wand on Harry, only for the Killing Curse to fail to take our little friend's life and instead kill its caster, what of it?"

"Getting there, boya. I presume you've heard the little," she broke off for a moment to grumble about lack of creativity and sheer ridiculousness. "Moniker they've given him?"

"Well, of course," he replied. "Not exactly the most imaginative name, if you don't mind me saying."

"Believe me, I share your sentiment, and that's something I never thought I'd say," that drew a chuckle from Negi. "Dissatisfaction with the name aside, I think he uses that stupid joke of his as a way of coping with the pressure they tried to put on him."

"Are you suggesting that he's doing it to make himself feel average?"

"Unfortunately, yes," she muttered, clenching her fists so tight that her nails began to dig into her skin, blood beading down the palm of her hand and onto the table. "Little brat won't give it up either, no matter what I bloody do to him!"

The redhead raised a brow in response. "You're going the loving, tender route? I must've missed that part of the training. Should I be jealous?"

"If by 'loving, tender route' you mean that I've threatened to pummel him from one end of my resort to the other should he make that comment in my presence, then yes, I've gone that route."

"Cheerful as always," he quipped. "Want me to talk to him again?"

"No," she snapped. "No, I don't want you to do anything! I made you find your way, he has to find his as well, even if he pisses me off to no end every bloody step!"

In a rare moment of boldness – or perhaps, stupidity – Negi took the opportunity to needle his volatile, former master. "But not so much that you'd ever throw him out of your home," he teased. "You've gotten attached to him – URK!"

He was cut off by a tiny hand lashing out and grasping his throat; with a jerk, Eva pulled him across the table so that he was eye level, forcing him to look directly into her blood red irises.

Yeah. Definitely not one of his more brilliant moments.

"Why don't you run that by me again, boya," she ground out, tightening her grip on his neck.

Negi struggled, trying to force her to loosen her grip, but his efforts were in vain. Once Eva had you in her grasp, there was no escape unless she allowed it.

To adapt a phrase: Evangeline McDowell doesn't battle, she allows you to lose.

"Nothing, master," he gasped, now trying to pry himself loose before she decided to crush his windpipe. Sure, he could regenerate because of Magia Erebea, but Eva still knew how to make it hurt like hell!

Her tone went from venomous to sickly sweet almost instantly, a wicked grin spread across her childlike face. "Oh? Nothing was it? Are you suggesting that I'm hearing things?"

_Shit! Wrong thing to say!_ "No, no, no! Not at all!" He panicked. "It was just a joke, I didn't mean anything by it!"

"A joke?" she parroted mockingly. "Oh, I _love_ jokes, boya, you of all people should know that! Here's one for you: What happens to an impudent disciple who's forgotten to fear his master?"

"I… I haven't the faintest idea," he lied, desperately praying that he wasn't going to be used as her personal punching bag. "She reminds him and gives him a warning?"

No dice. Eva shook her head like a disappointed teacher, tutting as she did so. "Not quite, boya," her grin turned predatory. "She drags his miserable, pathetic, whining carcass into her training resort and _shows_ him why he should be afraid!"

"That's unnecessary, master, really!" He was running out of time!

Of course, no amount of pleading would save anyone from Eva's wrath…

"Oh, it is, boya," she insisted. "After all, it would be _such_ a shame if my first disciple forgot his training! It's my duty as a master to make sure you remember everything!"

"Everything?" Oh, god, please no!

"What is there an echo in here? Yes! Everything!"

Negi quickly sent a silent prayer that something, _anything_, would come to his aid and draw Eva's attention, if only for a second, just to give him enough time to escape her grasp while she focused on her latest victim.

"Negi-bouzu!" His eyes widened in horror; oh, please, anything but _them_! He knew there was no hope; the newcomer's voice was quite familiar to him. Sure enough, Ku Fei stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her beautiful face. She was garbed in a red Chinese martial arts outfit – she rarely wore anything else – with black slipper shoes, her spikey, blond hair was tied up on both sides and her large, green eyes, which were normally alight with joy or the thrill of a good fight, were narrowed in anger. "Why you sneak out this morning-aru?" She shouted, lapsing back into her old manner of speech in her angered state.

Eva released her former disciple and settled back into her chair with an amused look on her face. This was going to be quality entertainment; all she needed was a little snack. If only Harry hadn't left…

The young mage in question paled as he noticed something rather frightening: Ku Fei wasn't alone. She was backed by his remaining wives, each of them wearing similarly stern or annoyed expressions on their faces, even Nodoka looked a bit peeved at his little disappearing act this morning.

"Uh… I… uh… I don't know what you're talking about!" He stammered, trying to avoid meeting their glares. "I just… uh… I just wanted to visit master and Harry! It's been a while, y'know!"

"You're a horrible liar, de gouzaru," Kaede stated drily, her narrow, slanted eyes open wide to regard her husband with a calculating gaze reserved only for enemies and whenever he landed himself in trouble with her. She, like her fellow martial artist, was dressed in her typical fighting attire; traditional Japanese style pink shirt and burgundy pants, a rope tied around her waste to act as a belt, and sandal shoes.

While the Koga clan ninja was normally laid back and amused by the antics of her fellow wives and fatally shy, polite husband, Kaede found it quite annoying that, even after marriage, he still had that habit of slipping away the moment an opportunity presented itself to him. Granted, he didn't shy away from physical contact like he used to, but his rather annoying attachment to being a proper gentleman persisted, making this polygamous relationship difficult for him to accept at times.

And sure, she could understand that having to deal with seven wives could be physically and emotionally exhausting, but it would be nice if Negi would just come out and say that he needed some time to himself instead of her waking up to find their bed missing its only male occupant without so much as a note telling where he'd run off to.

"No kidding," Kazumi put in, a tiny hint of amusement dancing in her eyes. "You're married to three of the most proficient information gathers in both worlds and you can't do better than stuttering through the most pitiful excuse I've ever heard? I'm almost insulted!"

Chisame, however, didn't share her amusement. "This is no laughing matter!" She snapped, glaring heatedly at her wayward husband, who shrunk back in fear. He could take on Jack Rakan, he could fight Fate, hell, he'd even take a second round against the Cosmo Entelechia, but facing his wives? That, and Eva when she was well and truly pissed off, was something he avoided like the plague.

"I concur," Yue chipped in, bobbing her head, causing her long, deep blue pigtails to bounce behind her. She briefly paused to take a sip of her drink, another one of her odd combinations that she pulled out of who-knows-where, before addressing Negi in her monotone voice, but with a hint of annoyance behind it. "We've been over this time and time again, Negi, this sneaking out without so much as a note has to stop. We're grown women now, we can accept that you need some time to yourself every now and again."

Haruna broke her glare and snickered, pushing up her glasses and winking flirtatiously at Negi. "Oh, don't tell him that!" She mock whined. "I love watching him squirm when he tries to resist temptation!"

The look on the young mage's face forced Eva to bite the inside of her cheek to hold in her laughter; she did have a reputation to keep, after all. If only she had a camera… Wait! Harry could get one! She quickly sent a telepathic message to Chachazero - she still had the magister-minstra connection with the sadistic puppet, even if she rarely used it - telling her to have Harry grab the camera from her room and hurry down to get a shot of Negi's face; she resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn't get to have that expression, that mixture of shock, horror and resignation, immortalized, but if she knew her former disciple – and she did – he'd be making a few variations of that face if the girls continued along this train of thought.

Hopefully, the little rabbit would remember to turn off the flash and stay out of sight so he could capture several of his senior disciple's expressions.

"Geez, it got noisy fast," Dammit! Her message to Chachazero was too late! The girls whirled around to find Harry looking at them in confusion, as if trying to wrap his head around what they were doing here so damn early. "Hang on, wasn't this whole get together thing supposed to start at midday?"

Okay, so maybe he could still provide some entertainment with his confusion at the sudden arrival of Negi's wives. Even if he'd been corrupted by his master's habits over the years, he still had his moments where he acted like the innocent little boy he really should be.

The perplexed boy didn't get a chance to react before he was pulled into a bone crushing hug by the older girls, his de facto aunts, and treated to his hair being ruffled and playful cooing over how much he'd grown since they'd last seen him.

"ACK! Gerroff!" Came his muffled cries. "I can't breath!"

"Oh, suck it up, little guy!" Kazumi teased. "Hold still and let me get a look at you! It's been too long since we've had a chance to sit down and talk!"

This only served to increase his motivation to escape the reporter's grasp! "No way! I'm not letting you interrogate me ever again!"

Unfortunately, he unwittingly pushed himself backwards into Haruna's grasp. "You're not getting away that easily, little guy!" She laughed, tightening her grip on him.

"Hai, hai, it really has been a while, de gozaru," Kaede said with a grin. "I wonder if you've kept up with your training since we last sparred. You haven't been slacking off now, have you?"

Eva broke her silence, scoffing at the notion that one of her disciples being allowed to loaf about. "Ha! Who the hell do you think he's being trained by, Negase? That little brat gets the same treatment that boya got when he came crawling into my cottage years ago. No slacking, no mercy!"

"Yeesh! Harsh as ever, de gozaru! It was just a joke!"

"Kaede still makes a good point-aru!" Ku Fei chirped, excited at the prospect of any chance to fight. "I want to see how far little Harry's come as well!"

The young boy in question frowned at her last remark. "I'm not that little!" He protested weakly, ignoring the fact that his image wasn't really helped by the fact that he could easily be picked up and cuddled by any one of them; a fact they took advantage of quite often.

Haruna grinned and did just that lifting him right off the ground and laughing at the way he kicked his feet in an attempt to free himself from her grasp. "Oh, yes you are, kiddo!" She teased, holding him tight against her chest. "You're as small and cuddly as a little teddy bear!"

The younger mage growled in annoyance, but smirked as he remembered something: he had a secret weapon, something he learned from Negi. The girls still ducked for cover whenever their husband sneezed, years of his wind magic stripping them of their clothes whenever he did so had conditioned them to run every time either of the two magi had so much as a sniffle.

Eva had made sure he had control over his rather volatile magic long ago, as uncontrolled outbursts of his particular element would've been _quite_ troublesome. But, the girls didn't know that.

Thus, where his secret, surefire escape tactic kicked in.

Harry sniffled, blinking rapidly, as if his eyes were irritated, to play up the image. Predictably, the girls stiffened, looks of surprise and fear crossing their faces. "Ah," their eyes widened. "AH! AAAAAH!"

The girls screamed, diving for cover, hiding behind the kitchen table or, in Kaede and Ku Fei's cases, jumping straight out the open window. Eva rolled her eyes at the little boy's antics; he was in for a world of trouble when those girls figured out that he was faking the warning signs to his own version of Negi's patented "strip sneeze". Knowing them, he'd end up forced into some ridiculous cosplay outfit and roped into attending one of Chisame's conventions.

Of course, she'd be in attendance, for purposes of blackmail material only.

Her secret habit of keeping copies of photos from his younger years – him performing her first feat of magic, learning his first elemental spell, a rather embarrassing shot of him being tricked into wearing rabbit ears by that _utter bastard_, Albiero – had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

Shifting attention back to the present, her mischievous disciple plastered the most innocent expression he could muster on his face and heaved a sigh of relief. "False alarm, sorry," he said, voice dripping with regret, his emerald eyes gazing at them with a look of utmost remorse.

It was despicable that he would lie like that. That he would manipulate them and use their own fears for his own gain with such ease!

Eva nodded in satisfaction; he'd learned well.

The girls collectively sighed in relief, coming out of their makeshift hiding places and laughing uneasily. To them, it had been a close call. Negi's wind magic was one thing but Harry's magic?

Yeah, they wanted nothing to do with _that_ particular element should he lose control.

Nodoka in particular was quite happy; two years in a relationship with Negi had gradually pulled her out of her shell, but she – along with the rest of the girls – much preferred to remain clothed when not in the privacy of their own home. "D-Don't worry, Harry," she stuttered out, still a bit shaken by the fright, but trying to placate the remorseful (Eva disguised a snicker as a cough) boy. "No one was hurt or anything."

Haruna poked her head out from behind Chachamaru and pouted. "Aww!" she groaned in disappointment. "I was hoping you'd at least get one of them! It would've been great material for my manga!"

The others didn't quite share her enthusiasm. None, however, matched Chisame's irritation. "Stop using us as fodder for your damn porn!" She shouted, jumping to her feet and balling her fists in anger.

"Oh, come on! I can't help where my inspiration comes from, Chiu-chan!" The manga artist teased, drawing a rather heated blush from her friend. "My readers just _loved_ you in the last chapter!"

Chisame's hands began to twitch, as if they were wrapped around the grinning, manga artist's neck, the cosplayer's breaths came in short, angry gasps. "I'LL FREAKING KILL YOU!"

Before she could make good on her threat, Negi moved behind her and looped his arms under hers, holding her in place. "Now, now, let's not fight in Chachamaru's kitchen," he tried to placate her, though she was more focused on trying to struggle out of his grasp and destroy Haruna.

It didn't help that the perverse manga artist was making faces at her.

Harry, meanwhile, quietly struggled to hold in his laughter at the scene playing out before him; this was just too damn perfect! Like Eva said, the girls formerly of Class 3-A were easily riled up, hell, he just gave a little hint that he was going to sneeze in order to escape the horrible fate of being cuddled against his will and it was about to devolve into a wrestling match between the perverse artist and the rigidly normal (not really) cosplaying hacker, two girls who were complete opposites in almost every way.

Seriously, this is quality entertainment! If only he had a video camera… Wait! He could get the tape from Chachamaru! YES!

In his amusement, Harry had made a crucial mistake: he dropped his guard. The raven-haired mage-in-training wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, and why should he? His source of entertainment was right in front of him screaming death threats and perverse taunts – which he really shouldn't understand, if it weren't for Eva's version of the Birds and the Bees talk – at the top of their lungs.

This proved to be a fatal error for the cuddle-phobic preteen.

"HARRY-KUN!" Without warning, the young boy was wrapped in a tight embrace, hauled into the air and squeezed against the chest of the bubbly healer of the Ala Alba, Konoka Konoe. He struggled and writhed in her arms, but could not escape her firm grim, so he was forced to endure the horror of having her pressing her cheek against his and – even worse – rubbing against him!

"ACK! KONOKA LET ME GO!"

"Awww, don't be so mean, Harry!" The bubbly woman pouted, still not loosening her grip. "I've missed you so much!"

"That's great but PUT ME THE HELL DOWN!"

His shout earned him a rap on the head with Yunagi's sheath, causing him to yelp in pain and grasp his head. Harry glared at his latest assailant and was met with the cold, stern gaze of the Ala Alba's resident Shinmei-ryu swordsman, Setsuna Sakurazaki.

"I don't care if it is your birthday, you will not address oujou-sama with such language, young man," she scolded, her eyes narrowed as if she were daring him to do so again.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Harry happily obliged. "Sheesh, what the hell's wrong with you? Did Konoka not give you enough kisses this morning, _Set-chan_?"

Upon seeing the blush rapidly spreading across the swordswoman's face, he knew he'd have to thank Eva for sharing that little bit of information later. It only got better when Konoka decided to speak up in her girlfriend's defense.

"Oh, don't be silly, Harry," she playfully admonished. "I always make sure to give Set-chan –"

"Oujou-sama, please don't say it so freely!" her lover pleaded, anxiety growing with the sight of Harry's widening grin.

Konoka wasn't deterred, giggling at her Set-chan's embarrassment. "- Plenty of kisses!" She chirped happily.

"Oujou-sama!"

"Teehee! Sorry, Set-chan! You're just so cute when you blush like that!" The woman in question blushed deeper, her embarrassment growing with each passing second. Her shoulders began shaking in anger as she focused her gaze on the wickedly grinning boy in her lover's arms.

A mischievous, little boy who desperately needed to be punished!

Now, Harry was used to someone directing killing intent on him, Eva did it all the time. But there was a distinct difference in dealing with an enraged Eva and a similarly enraged Setsuna. With Eva, he knew that she wouldn't kill him; she'd torture him for hours, dragging it out as long as possible and reveling in his cries of fear and pain, but she would keep him alive.

Setsuna's temper was, dare he say it, more volatile. She was too difficult to read. And when she was able to draw Yunagi out of its blade, nothing could stand against her. Harry shuddered at the possibility; even Eva respected the demon slayer's prowess with that sword.

"Um, Konoka," he gulped nervously, renewing his efforts to escape her grasp as Setsuna's eyes seemed to glow with rage, her fingers twitching as she reached for Yunagi's handle. "Could you let me go… like _now_?!"

"No way!" she refused, completely oblivious to her lover's murderous rage. "You're not getting away from me that easily!"

Not good! He tried pushing himself away, but couldn't free himself! "I'll hug you as much as you want later!" He babbled, his panic only increasing as he saw the first glint of Yunagi's steel. "Just let me go before she kills me!"

"Oh, she's just playing!" Setsuna now had Yunagi fully drawn; that certainly didn't look like playing! Where the hell was Eva when he needed her?

Oh, right, she was laughing her ass off at the table, holding onto Negi to make sure that he couldn't rush in to save the day. That damn, psycho master of his wanted him to sink or swim on this one.

Even if sinking seemed more likely right now.

Just as Setsuna took her first step forward, raising Yunagi above her head, she was dropped to the floor by a vicious fist to the top of her head, courtesy of the powerhouse of the Ala Alba, Negi's original partner. "No killing the birthday brat! Even if he's a little smartass!"

Typical, troublemaking, Asuna Kagurazaka had never been a more welcome sight for the young mage, who sighed in relief. Sure, he was probably in for one of her long-winded, annoying lectures about not antagonizing others – like she had any room to talk – but that was a much more desirable fate than being a practice dummy for the downed swordswoman.

As if on cue, the redheaded woman turned her glare on Harry, the bells in her hair jingling as she did so. "And you! What the hell have you been told about that damn mouth of yours?"

Charming as ever.

"Only piss off the people I can beat or outrun!" he replied cheekily, using the same line Eva had given him years ago.

The poorly stifled giggles from the girls behind him made the light – by Asuna's definition – bop on the head worth it, even if it would probably leave a sizeable bump later. "Who the hell taught you that crap, brat!" she snapped, giving him another for good measure when she noticed that he didn't look at all remorseful.

Eva cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow haughtily. "Who else, troublemaker?" she asked sarcastically.

Of course.

"Can't you at least _try_ to be a positive influence for once?" Asuna growled. "Wasn't making that brat," she gestured to Negi, who only protested weakly. "An unholy powerhouse enough?"

The vampiress gave a look of mock hurt. "But I thought I was being a positive influence!" Her look shifted to her more typical wicked grin. "A positively evil influence!"

"Putting a kid through hellish training, teaching him to be a regular pest and enjoy messing with people is not what a guardian is supposed to do!"

"Oh, and bashing boya over the head whenever things didn't go your way is?"

Asuna blushed heavily at Eva's reference to her temper in the past. "Th-that's neither here nor there! And you're just as guilty!"

"Girls! Please!" Negi interjected, trying to stop the impending argument. "It's much too early for arguing!"

"SHUT UP BRAT/BOYA!" The two yelled, causing him to shrink back in fear, before resuming their shouting match.

"You wanna take this outside, bitch!"

"I thought you'd never ask, leech!"

"Huh, thirty seconds and they're already fighting," Harry muttered to Konoka, as his master and Asuna marched outside, bickering all the way. "That's gotta be a new record."

"Not quite, I'm afraid," Kazumi chipped in, seeming bored with it all. She'd seen this many times before. "They only lasted four seconds a few years ago."

He blinked in surprise. "Really? How did I miss that one?"

"It was right before Eva went globetrotting and found you in England."

Ah. Well, that made sense, he supposed. The arguments between Eva and Asuna had, of course, been the stuff of legends, quality entertainment, to him for years. Once he figured out that this was just their way of greeting one another, their time to trade insults with one another, similar to the way he and Eva did on a day-to-day basis.

That being said, he _definitely_ wasn't going to miss this!

Before he could witness the carnage, he first had to convince Konoka to stop cuddling him and put him the bloody hell down! Easier said than done.

**Chapter End**

**Review and let me know what you liked or didn't like. **


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